When I grow up, I want to adopt a pit bull. 

“What are you thinking?! Pit bulls are dangerous!” most would say.

Well, you would be wrong. Pit bulls are actually one of the sweetest dogs breeds out there. They are labeled as aggressive and dangerous because they are a big dog. You do not hear about a small dog like a Chihuahua attacking a human in the news because the Chihuahua is seen as too small to do any sort of damage. But when a Pit Bull attacks a human, it is construed into “Pit Bull attacks defenseless human.” 

There is also a second reason why pit bulls are not as aggressive as you may think. That reason is: There’s no such thing as a bad dog, but there is a such thing as a bad owner. What I mean by this is that a dog, especially a pit bull, can be taught to please their owner. This can be taken in many ways, such as fetching something for their owner or doing a trick when told to. But there’s also a negative point to this. The dog can be trained to hurt someone for their owner’s pleasure, whether this would be another human or even sometimes another dog. Either way, it is very heartbreaking when this is the case. 

There is another situation in which there is a such thing as a “bad owner” when it is specific to abuse cases. A lot of dogs, especially those labeled as aggressive like the pit is, are abused and left to die by someone that used to be their “owner”. Who would do this to such a dog is completely sick, and hopefully karma catches up to them. 

Now that I’ve told why it’s not the pit’s fault, it’s quite possibly the owners fault, I will tell you where I would adopt if I could get there. There is a show on Animal Planet called “Pit Bulls and Parolees” where inmates in prison get parole through rescuing and taking care of abandoned or abused dogs. The main breed of dogs they find is, of course, the pit bull. 

It is very sad to see what these dogs have been through. Most of the pits they find are emaciated and scared, and they usually need a bath and sometimes even treatment for heart worm, which is a parasite that affects mainly dogs that have been in the wild for at least a week. 

The shelter the show is located at is called Villalobos and is located in Louisiana. I understand that it may be a long drive before I get the pit that I so desire, but it will be well worth the wait.